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The Viennese journalist, Theodore Herzl is considered to be the founder of Modern Political Zionism. His Zionist message was that a Jewish State, with a Jewish majority in the ancient homeland of Israel-albeit granting full rights to its ethnic minorities – was the only hope for Jews to find full security and safety in a world where anti-Semitism was endemic.
Herzl was known for stating, “If you will it, it is no dream.” He took the first measure to make this dream a reality by convening the First Zionist Congress in Basle in August, 1897.
In the immediate decades that followed, Zionism remained as a minority movement within World Jewry. The unsurpassed horror of the Nazi Holocaust resulted in the transformation of Zionism into a doctrine commanding the allegiance and support of the overwhelming majority of World Jewry, both inside and outside Palestine.
Accordingly, on May 14, 1948, the fifth day of the Jewish month of Iyar, David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, read in Tel Aviv the Proclamation of Independence of the State of Israel to the Provisional State Council, the forerunner of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. The British Mandate over Palestine was terminated the following day, and regular armed forces of Transjordan (later Jordan), Egypt, Syria, and other Arab countries attacked Israel.
Against all odds, Israel prevailed, as it did in subsequent wars for its survival (1956, 1967, and 1973). As the pro-Zionist British author Christopher Sykes wrote, “Israel became a land after the war exalted by a just pride…Within three and a half years of sufferings such as few other people had undergone in the whole course of recorded history, after the loss of a third of their population in the world, the Jews had formed a Jewish State only fifty-one years after Theodore Herzl had called the first Zionist Congress.”
Today, on its 75th birthday on the Hebrew calendar, Israel has a continuing remarkably strong and beneficial impact on the State of New Jersey, particularly on its politics, its trade, and in the education of its Jewish children of post-high school age.
A 2020 survey published by the Brandeis Jewish Electorate Institute showed that a majority of the American Jewish electorate resides in four states: New York (1.2 million Jewish adults), California (930,000), Florida (665,000), and New Jersey (440,000). This makes support for Israel an essential issue in New Jersey for candidates for governor, US Senate, and Congressional seats.
This also results in visits to Israel being de rigueur for campaigns of these candidates. I have participated in many of these sojourns to the Jewish State.
One such visit always comes to my mind: My 1994 mission to Israel with the then GOP US Senate candidate and Speaker of the Assembly Garabed “Chuck” Haytaian. On the second morning of the trip, at breakfast, he turned to me and said,” You’re at home here.”
Chuck was right. While America, specifically New Jersey, is my home which I have no plans to leave, when I travel to Israel (18 times thus far), I never lose my feeling that I am visiting my family home, the home of the Jewish people.
It should be noted that the politics of the New Jersey Jewish community is not monolithic when it comes to Israeli issues. Virtually all segments of the Jewish community support military aid to Israel as a matter of essential security.
Modern Orthodox voters, however, tend to be more hawkish against territorial concessions by Israel in the West Bank, referred to by them as “Judea and Samaria.”
Ultra-Orthodox voters, known in Hebrew as “Haredi,” mostly living in Lakewood and its environs, are basically non-Zionist and do not ascribe any religious significance to the Israeli government or observe as religious holidays such Zionist commemorations as Israel Independence Day (Yom Haatzmaut) or Jerusalem Liberation Day, celebrating the reconquest of the Old City of Jerusalem in the June, 1967 war (Yom Yerushalayim). They do, however, support strongly military aid to Israel as a matter of safety and security for Israeli communities.
It should also be noted that young Ultra-Orthodox Jewish families, because of housing expenses, are increasingly moving to Lakewood from Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Boro Park. In fact, there are projections that the Jewish population of Lakewood could rise to be as high as 150,000. Such new young immigrants to New Jersey are eager to contribute to life in Lakewood, and they will be a net positive to the Garden State.
In recent decades, bilateral trade between New Jersey and Israel has expanded substantially. According to the New Jersey-Israel Commission, in 2019, the value of bilateral trade between New Jersey and Israel was valued at $1.27 billion. Israel has continued to be a notable source of job creation and foreign direct investment into New Jersey.
What is most interesting is how study abroad in Israel is becoming an almost essential component of New Jersey Jewish college level students.
Hebrew University in Jerusalem is Israel’s premier academic and research institution. My son, Neil, a graduate of the University of Maryland, spent his junior undergraduate year at Hebrew University and studied the politics of Israel from some of Israel’s top political scientists. That year of 2000-2001 was the time of the Palestinian Intifada in Israel, which began in September, 2000. Many American students came home out of concern for their safety, but Neil stayed in Israel the entire year, a fact of which I am most proud.
For New Jersey Modern Orthodox or Ultra-Orthodox college level students, the routine is different. Many will visit Israel for a period of one or two years to devote themselves exclusively to religious subjects such as Torah and Talmud, totally avoiding secular subjects.
The point of departure between Modern Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox students comes when they return to America.
The Modern Orthodox college age students, by and large, will then seek to broaden their education to include secular subjects. They can receive such secular education at Yeshiva University in New York, a Modern Orthodox rabbinical sponsored college whose motto is “Torah Umadda” – Torah and Wisdom, meaning Torah and secular learning. Yeshivah University is a most highly ranked university by higher education rating services.
Most Ultra-Orthodox College age students, when they return from learning in Israel, will reenter Beis Medrash Govoha in Lakewood (BMG). This institution is devoted exclusively to the learning of Torah, Talmud and other sacred written works. It is the finest institution of its type in the world.
The famed billionaire media and real estate entrepreneur Mort Zuckerman, who served a term as Chair of the Council of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, once visited BMG and described it as the most joyous intellectual learning experience he had ever witnessed, even exceeding that of his alma mater, Harvard Law School. New Jersey can well be proud of Beis Medrash Govoha.
New Jersey and Israel are sister states, established by an agreement entered into by Governor Tom Kean in 1988. In 2011, I authored a column, “Israel, Robert Kean, and Tom Kean – Perfect Together.”
Tom Kean on April 21 celebrated his 88th birthday – five days before Israel’s 75th birthday. Accordingly, I say to Tom Kean, “Yom Huledet Sameach – Happy Birthday, Tom Kean – May you live at least 120 years!”
Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.
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